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The government will on Thursday launch a drive to boost childhood vaccination rates, health authorities said, seeking an "urgent reversal" to a fall in uptake as the country faces a worsening measles outbreak. Routine childhood immunisations in Britain for diseases including measles, mumps and rubella, diphtheria and polio, have been falling gradually over the past decade, but dipped more sharply after the Covid-19 pandemic, mirroring a global decline. Last year UNICEF said people worldwide had lost confidence in the importance of routine childhood vaccines during the pandemic, with misinformation, dwindling trust in governments and political polarisation contributing to rising hesitancy. Britons will begin seeing adverts from next week across various media, including a television campaign featuring children reminding parents of the risk of missing out on vaccinations, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said. "We need an urgent reversal of the decline in the uptake of childhood vaccinations to protect our communities," UKHSA chief executive Jenny Harries said in a statement.

The Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) Taskforce head Madelaine McTernan has returned to working full time as the director general of the Vaccine Taskforce for autumn booster campaign preparation. She has presented a few key recommendations to help ensure continued HRT supply to meet rising demand. "Improved access to data on prescriptions to more easily see where there are shortfalls between HRT packs prescribed and HRT packs supplied by manufacturers," she suggested. "Taking lessons from the HRT supply chain work to inform broader medicine supply work." Madelaine said: "I am pleased to see the situation with HRT supply is improving across the country. I want to thank suppliers and manufacturers for their engagement and positive action to tackle this serious issue.

Brits are increasing relying on over-the-counter (OTC) medicines to prevent or treat common ailments, as the 'care at home trend' has become prominent amongst UK households following the COVID-19 pandemic. Almost three-quarters of Brits (71 per cent) now choose to treat minor ailments at home rather than visit their GP or pharmacist, according to new research. The self-care message promoted by the government and NHS during the pandemic has led to a new generation of consumers who continue to take control of their own health and treat minor ailments themselves. Additionally, the research, commissioned by Lanes Health, revealed that public awareness about preventative treatment has increased, with 70 per cent of Brits claiming that they do their best to prevent the spread of common illnesses since the pandemic.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has warned that there has been a continued increase in cases of whooping cough (pertussis) across England since the start of this year. According to new data published by the agency on Thursday (7 March), 553 new cases of whooping cough were confirmed in January alone, compared with 858 cases for the whole of last year (2023). The country is witnessing a surge in whooping cough cases after a prolonged period of low case numbers, attributed to restrictions and reduced social interaction during the COVID-19 pandemic. England recorded the highest number of whooping cough cases in 2016, recording 5,949 cases. As the ongoing rise coincides with a steady decline in the vaccination rates among pregnant women and children, UKHSA has strongly encouraged mums-to-be to get the maternal pertussis vaccine so that their young baby is protected against this serious disease.

There were an estimated 408,700 hospital admissions due to smoking in 2022-23, an increase of 4.8 per cent from 389,800 in 2021-22, latest statistics published by NHS England have shown. In 2020-21, there were 314,100 admissions attributed to smoking, which was consistent with fewer hospital admissions overall that year, according to the health service's Statistics on Public Health, 2023 report. However, smoking-related admissions in each of the past three years remained lower than in 2019-20, prior to the Covid pandemic, when there were 446,400 cases. Smoking accounted for around one in six (16 per cent) of all hospital admissions for respiratory diseases last year, eight per cent of all admissions for cancers and seven percent of admissions for cardiovascular diseases.

A Labour Party analysis of NHS trust figures has revealed that around 148,000 people died last year while waiting for treatment in England. This is more than double the figure recorded in 2017/18, which stood at around 60,000 deaths. It even surpasses the mortality rate observed in 2021, during the peak of the Covid pandemic. The Labour Party obtained the data through a freedom of information request sent to every NHS trust in England. Out of the 169 acute and community trusts contacted, 80 responded. The total number of deaths reported by the respondents was 61,396. Extrapolating this figure to all trusts would suggest a total of 148,227 deaths.

The UK government has awarded a £1.7 million contract to Ensilicated Technologies Ltd (EnsiliTech), a University of Bath spinout company dedicated to making vaccines safer, to develop the world's first thermally stable mRNA vaccine. mRNA vaccines have a huge potential to prevent infectious diseases and a range of previously unpreventable conditions, but currently, these vaccines require ultracold storage, needing to be kept at -70 or even -80 °C. The company's ensilication technology allows vaccines and other biological materials to be transported and stored without the use of refrigeration. Dr Asel Sartbaeva, co-founder and CEO at EnsiliTech, believes that the technology could save tens of thousands of lives every year. She commented: "We're so proud to have won this important government grant."